Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Has $3.51 Million Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. grew its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 53.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 108,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,860 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in BCE were worth $3,508,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in BCE by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 15,933,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $643,159,000 after buying an additional 221,174 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in BCE by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $500,376,000 after buying an additional 80,879 shares during the period. FIL Ltd raised its stake in BCE by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $551,505,000 after buying an additional 2,217,262 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in BCE by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 11,151,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $441,217,000 after buying an additional 435,681 shares during the period. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. raised its stake in BCE by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,085,576 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,678,000 after buying an additional 287,261 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BCE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Cibc World Mkts raised BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock traded up $0.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $35.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,311,930 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,254,635. The company has a market cap of $31.93 billion, a PE ratio of 24.31, a P/E/G ratio of 5.62 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The business has a fifty day moving average of $33.50 and a 200-day moving average of $34.03. BCE Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.13 and a 52 week high of $42.96.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. BCE had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 8.39%. The company had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.729 per share. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.33%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 200.69%.

About BCE

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.